See where some of that $195 million was spent

Something to look forward to: We’re so used to hearing stories about Star Citizen backers fighting to get their pledges returned that it’s easy to forget about the game itself. At CitizenCon, a live event organized by developer Cloud Imperium Games, we saw a new trailer for the space sim’s single-player mode, which features some big Hollywood names.

Despite being in development since 2012 and having raised $195 million through crowdfunding, Star Citizen still doesn’t have a solid release date. But work is progressing on the game, as this new trailer for Squadron 42, its "cinematic single-player adventure" mode, shows.

It appears that some of the near $200 million raised went toward paying Squadron 42’s cast. Gillian Anderson, Mark Hamill, Gary Oldman, Mark Strong, John Rhys Davies, Liam Cunningham, Ben Mendelsohn, and the soon-to-be Geralt of Rivia—Henry Cavill—all appear in the game.

Star Citizen is the brainchild of Chris Roberts, who those of certain age may remember for his work on the brilliant (for the time) Wing Commander games from the 1990s. Squadron 42 reunites two actors from the FMV-filled WC titles: Mark Hamill and John Rhys Davies. It’s a shame Roberts can’t shoehorn the cat-like Kilrathi race in there, too.

To coincide with CitizenCon, Cloud Imperium Games launched its quarterly Star Citizen update—Alpha 3.3. One of its additions is face and voice over internet protocol (FoIP), which lets players control their in-game character's facial expressions with their own using a webcam. It means that when you speak to other players, the avatar will mimic your mouth movements as well as your looks of disgust and rage, adding an extra layer of realism.